Author: Paul Little

Smog – Palimpsest

I ask for your indulgence because I only chose a Smog song a few weeks ago. But ‘Palimpsest’, as Nico’s song did last year, suits this afternoon’s winter’s day.

This is not only because of the lyrics, but because in ‘Palimpsest’ Bill Callahan holds the listener, with a simple repeated guitar figure and the measured drawing out of his words, in a holding pattern as the winter holds; not terrifying and coldly, but careful and still; and together, always, with the anticipation of being let go.

‘Palimpsest’ is from what is, I think, one of my favourite Smog albums – A River Ain’t Too Much To Love.

I have seen Bob Dylan live. I wasn’t sure at first. I remembered seeing him perhaps at Wembley Stadium, because I had a vague memory of talking with my friend Tim as we made our way out of the gig. But I thought this might have been a dream, a false memory. But no, I was there. I found the ticket stub:

Whitmore & Hoyston – A Feast Of A Thousand Beasts

I was listening to William Elliot Whitmore’s new album, Kilonova, this week; remembered an EP called ‘Hallways of Always’ he recorded with Jenny Hoyston of the band Erase Errata.

The EP doesn’t seem to be included in Whitmore’s discography – and I couldn’t find it on Spotify – so I guess it’s gone out of print or something? Track it down if you can. If memory serves, ‘Feast of A Thousand Beasts’ is the opening track.

Black Mountain – Mothers of the Sun

Years after the “event” I emerge from my shelter pod. I am pleased to have survived. As I join the queue of people, I am thankful others have too. I remember those who have not. The queue is long and I cannot see the end. Nor do I know what the queue is for. I ask those in the line if they know what this queue is for. They say they do not. A woman gives me some water in exchange for some of my bread. The queue moves. The overriding feeling I have, and the feelings of those in the queue with me, I’d say is hope. In the distance there is a sound. We listen. We nod. Riff.

Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard University and author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It said: “To me, the most important function of the contract is to remind people that the web we have isn’t the only one possible. That’s both a warning – including about how aspects of the web have become – and an opportunity. The contract seeks to get those wielding the most power online to commit to some boundaries in how they treat their users.”

[…]

Some online ills can be traced back to the reliance of certain businesses on advertising, with the pursuit of better revenues spawning clickbait and fake news. But Berners-Lee said companies are looking at how to combat those, and sees other reasons to be hopeful: “People in the big companies are concerned about truth and democracy. They don’t want people to look back and say theirs was the platform that misled people to vote against their own best interests,” he said.